After stinking up the joint in the first half against non-conference rival Illinois, the Missouri Tigers today impressively came out and completely dominated the second half to beat the Illini 23-13. Meantime, the Tigers' bitter, hated rival -- the jayhawkers of Kansas -- accomplished one of the most difficult things for a Division I football team to ever pull off: The beakers lost to the IAA/FCS North Dakota State Bison by the score of 6-3 (yes, a baseball game broke out)!!! HA HA! This was the headcoaching debut at Kansas for former Nebraska Bugeater, Turner Gill. He is likely the first head coach ever to lose to a IAA/FCS team in his coaching debut at a Division I school, and it's also likely the beakers' first ever loss to a IAA/FCS team period.
I say those things, even without knowing, because Division I teams losing to IAA/FCS teams is very rare. There are probably dozens and dozens of such games every season, and it seems to me that typically a Division I team loses one of those games maybe (at most) once every couple of seasons. Put another way, there is nothing more embarrassing for a Division I team.
And when it does happen, it's typically a top tier IAA/FCS team that pulls off the upset. That ain't North Dakota State, who (despite some past success) had something like a 3-8 record last year! Two words: OU-CH!
And perhaps the funniest thing is that the North Dakota State mascot is the Bison -- the same name that still sticks in the craw of jayhawkers everywhere after the Bucknell Bison delivered the Death-Nell to the Kansas basketball team in the first round of the 2005 NCAA Tournament. Again, two words: Fit-ting!
http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/25993/jayhawks-drop-opener-against-fcs-bison
http://www.kansascity.com/2010/09/04/2199093/mu-trails-illinois-in-st-louis.html
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